tankard (Schnelle)

The creamy white tankard on the left of this image was made at Siegburg, near Bonn in the Rhineland, and has the moulded initials HH, for the potter Hans Hilgers. The tapering cylindrical body has three applied moulded panels featuring episodes from the life of the Old Testament hero Samson. In one, he kills a lion with his bare hands, in another he is seduced by Delila who took away his strength by cutting his hair, and in the third he carries off the gates of Gaza. The first two are based on woodcuts by Jost Amman, the third on an engraving by Virgil Solis. The tankard was formerly in the great collection of Renaissance works of art formed in Prague by Adalbert von Lanna (1836-1909) and later acquired by the diamond magnate Sir Julius Wernher (1850-1912).

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